Hallo all,
You may have heard the news already, or read about it here: this week we received an official letter terminating our current lease at 3 Bristo Place, and asking us to leave by 31st August. This is obviously bad news -- we were holding out some hope that the lawyers&bankers&buyers wouldn't do this in time and allow the lease to roll over for another year -- but there are lots of reasons to remain positive, and lots of plans to help keep us open. The important stuff:
1. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE BUILDING HAS YET BEEN SOLD. The advice we've had is that this is a fairly standard thing to happen in this situation: it might mean that a sale is very close to completion, or it might be just one more step down that road. We're not sure. It doesn't even mean that a potential buyer wants us to leave: anyone buying this building and intending to keep us would want to terminate that lease and negotiate a new one anyway.
2. WE'RE TRYING TO GET MORE INFORMATION. We have a meeting with PWC, the Trustees of the bankrupt EUS, on Tuesday. We may be able to get more info about what's going on from them, and we will let you know as soon as we can.
3. WE'RE PREPARING TO STRUGGLE AGAINST THIS IF NEEDED. The collective made a decision that our first priority was trying to stay in our current home, so that's what we're going to try and do. We're waiting until we get more info on Tuesday, but we do have plans about things we can start doing to show our strength and ability to stay here.
4. BUT WE ARE ALSO LOOKING AT ALTERNATIVES. But we also have to make sure that Forest stays open: if the worst comes to the worst and we do have to leave at the end of August, we want to have another home lined up. It's not at the stage where we have to make that decision yet, but we're trying to be prepared for every eventuality.
All this means that we're still strong, that we're not giving up, and that there's still loads of work to do. There's no better time to join the campaign team or to sign up to be a monthly donor: check http://blog.theforest.org.uk/savetheforest for more. Come join in! The more people are helping, the better placed we are to get through this tricky time.